


Forgive Me

by Adeline_Wrights_Fanfiction



Series: Love's Garden AU [13]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:27:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21885958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adeline_Wrights_Fanfiction/pseuds/Adeline_Wrights_Fanfiction
Summary: Weiss fears the nightmare born of her sins. Ruby, however, suggests it was a sin born from her nightmares.
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Series: Love's Garden AU [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545730
Comments: 7
Kudos: 64





	Forgive Me

It all felt like some delirious fever dream. There was no way it could have been real. Weiss tossed and turned alone in her king-sized bed, feeling cold, remorseful, and unspeakably hollow. How could she have done this to Ruby? She had known better. She had always known better.

She cried.

Tears of soulful, broken dreams fell across her lips—lips that would never again know her lover’s kiss. There was no taking this back. There was no undoing her mistake. Her entire being ached with the guilt of what she had done…

_ What had she done? _

Sobs wracked her chest, choking sorrows that stole the air from her tired lungs. She had cried so much already; she would cry so much more before she was done.

“I’m sorry, my love… please forgive me.”

* * *

Ruby Rose was no stranger to her partner’s nightmares, but something about Weiss seemed uncharacteristically cryptic as she fretted in her sleep. Weiss’s nightmares were violent. She would sweat. She would moan and scream in twisted agony. But now? She lay curled into herself crying.

“I’m sorry,” she would say. Sorry for what?

It didn’t matter. Weiss was clearly in distress and it was Ruby’s job to rescue her. What she couldn’t protect her partner from in sleep, she could at least save her from in waking.

“Weiss,” she spoke, gripping Weiss’s shoulder firmly. A gentle shake, then another.

The girl did not stir.

Ruby shook her again, spoke her name, smoothed the fabric of her nightgown. It was only when – growing tearful herself – Ruby set a hand upon Weiss’s cheek and pressed their foreheads together that Weiss’s eyes fluttered open. Dully, slowly, the alabaster-haired girl returned to the world of the waking.

“Ruby,” she breathed. “Ruby.”

Again, again, and again, Weiss repeated her name.

“I’m here, Weiss. It was only a nightmare.”

Was it really? Weiss had already woken one dozen times. Sometimes Ruby was there. Sometimes she wasn’t. The truest nightmare was not being sure where she was, or if the warmth at her side was real.

“How can I be sure?”

Whatever Ruby had been expecting, it wasn’t that.

“How can I be sure this is real?” Weiss asked again.

“I…” Ruby had no idea what to say. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. I did something horrible – something unforgivable – and when I woke up, you were gone. I’ve cried myself to sleep one dozen times, and each time I wake up to another dream. Sometimes you’re here, telling me everything is alright, and sometimes I wake up alone with I’ve done.”

Weiss captured Ruby’s silver gaze with pleading, soul-searching blue. This would be the thirteenth. Thoughts of death flitted through Weiss’s mind. Was it the number? Or the torment?

“Have you gotten out of bed since the nightmares started?”

“What?”

“I’m asking you if you’ve left your bed since you started dreaming.”

“I… I don’t think I have. No.”

“Then up you go. We’re getting out of bed so I can prove to you that this is real.”

Could it really be so simple? Weiss hadn’t stopped to consider until now that she had been caught in the same routine each sequence. Did she dare to hope?

When Ruby sat up in bed, Weiss half-expected the girl to disappear into the air. Instead, she did something different—something far more grounding. Ruby took Weiss’s hand and held it as she coaxed the disbelieving girl onto her feet. She didn’t let go of Weiss’s hand for a moment. Weiss glanced at the clock, then out their window-wall to find a full moon bathing their room in that soft, subtle light they so loved.

Ruby led her partner to the open space by the window, raising their joined hands to shoulder height and setting her free hand on Weiss’s hip.

“Dance with me,” she whispered, swaying slowly.

Weiss didn’t need to be told twice. Choking back a sob, she threw herself against Ruby’s chest, grasping at Ruby’s shoulder with her free hand and tightening her shared grip against Ruby’s other hand.

“It’s okay to cry,” Ruby soothed. “It’s okay to let it go. I forgive you, Weiss.”

As soon as she spoke the words, Weiss’s sobbing began anew.

“You don’t even know what I did.”

Ruby pressed a kiss to her partner’s hair. “And I don’t need to. It was all a dream, Weiss. Whatever you think you’ve done, it didn’t happen.”

“How can you be so sure?” Weiss put enough space between them that she could look up at Ruby. Her eyes were pleading, as if begging Ruby to find the guilt within them.

The brunette hummed ponderously. “I suppose I can’t,” she admitted. “But I have faith. You have yet to betray my trust, and I know you to be a virtuous woman.”

“I come from a family of thieves,” Weiss muttered with great bitterness.

“You are not your father, Weiss. Your brother Whitley is still a victim of his abuse. And while your sister may not be so honest, she did break free in her own way. If you believe yourself to be guilty, confess to me your sin, that I may judge you properly.”

Ruby spoke her words with an unblinking gaze. Not once did she waver from Weiss’s trembling blue. But there was no malice in Ruby’s silver. They continued to sway as she spoke the words, the moonlight bearing witness to her conviction.

Weiss had to break away. She removed her hands from Ruby and huddled against herself in the cold. “I cheated on you.”

Ruby’s response to her wretched admission was as unthinkable as the sin itself. She smiled.

“Who did you cheat on me with?”

Her smile was not sarcastic. It was not amused. It was so genuine, so kind. Weiss had to look away again.

“Ilia,” Weiss said.

“Ilia? From my track team?”

Weiss’s furious blush was all Ruby needed as confirmation. Her face fell for only a moment, but then her smile was back in place.

“Well, that’s almost believable.”

“Almost?” Weiss asked.

“I mean, she couldn’t stop staring at you when she walked in on us that one time—”

Weiss’s flush deepened, though this time with mutual embarrassment. “I should have known better than to jump you in your locker room.”

Ruby laughed and embraced her partner. “I look back on it fondly. And while she definitely thinks you’re pretty, I don’t think I have anything to worry about.”

“Why is that?”

“Ilia's ace.”

“She’s what? I thought you were the team’s ace.”

Ruby laughed again, this time so hard she had to lean on Weiss for support. “No, no. I mean she’s asexual. She wouldn’t sleep with you because she’s not interested in sex.”

“Wait, so…” Weiss’s brow furrowed as the pieces clicked together. “But I remember it happening.”

The brunette’s laughter was nearly uncontrollable now. “And she’d be incredibly flattered that you had a sex dream about her, but it was definitely just a dream.”

Weiss’s knees went weak with relief. She nearly buckled under Ruby’s weight, but Ruby caught herself and held Weiss against her before either could fall.

“It was really just a dream?”

Ruby’s silver eyes danced with mischief and forgiveness for a sin that was never committed.

“It was just a dream, Weiss.”

“Oh, thank the gods…”

“Please forgive yourself, Weiss. And before you start beating yourself up for admitting you’re attracted to another woman, don’t. It’s perfectly natural. I’d be more worried if you told me you  _ never _ got turned on by other girls.”

It was all so much to take in. This was real? Everything she had experienced – her infidelity and all the hells that followed – they were all a lie. Ruby forgave her. Ruby didn’t even need to forgive her. There was nothing to forgive.

Could it all be so easy?

When Ruby dipped her head to kiss Weiss on the lips, she understood that yes, it really could be. Weiss poured her soul into Ruby’s lips, seeking not forgiveness but Ruby’s endless wellspring of love.

Love was such a tricky thing. Weiss’s nightmares only served to make things harder. But love was also bleedingly simple. Beneath the moonlight, swaying once again in Ruby’s arms, Weiss felt as though love were the only thing in existence. Gazing into the mercurial sea of Ruby’s eyes, lit in full by that mysterious force within, Weiss felt as though forgiveness was as simple as breathing.

And breathe she did. Her lips formed the words, “I love you,” and her fingers curled to form the sign against Ruby’s hand. And Ruby formed them in turn, lips and fingers alike. Love and forgiveness. Love and forgiveness.

Love’s garden proved bountiful on this night.


End file.
